About Balance, Equilibrium and Symbolic Exchange #92

2023

Recycled plastic/Augmented reality

The object generates virtual works of art, and you can put as much money into it as you think its art is worth. The more you ensure the object’s balance, as it is built on the principle of a roly-poly toy. This work explores the issues of the cost of work, symbolic exchange and the theory of second money, as well as the need for money for the artist’s stability and hence the ability to further produce art.

There is a certain similarity between the system of money and the system of art: both are symbolic systems. By exchanging money for art, we exchange one abstraction for another. The value of both is simply the outcome of a social contract. Accordingly, symbolic measures can be thank-you payments — ordinary money used in the unusual function of voluntary retroactive payments. The more ‘donations’ collected for something, the higher its value. The following logic is laid as a basis for this solution: the symbolic value is manifested in the ability to generate quality time. The measure of this ability can be thank-you money — after all, it is they who highlight the recipients' subjective attitude towards value.

If you get rid of the stereotype of mercantilism inherent in money, it is easy to see how accurately the gift scheme corresponds to the spirit of human relations. On one side, there is information or a work of art, the value of which is to be measured — it leans towards a free good. On the other — time, which is spent on consuming this art. Though in principle it is in short supply, in this case, it does not manifest itself as such. To correlate one with the other is like trying to balance out vacuums. No matter how complex the labyrinth, there is a way out, and it can be found if you look at symbolic exchange as a means to turn calendar time into subjective quality time of the individual.